Tories attack worklessness figures

The Tories have stepped up their attack on the "failure" of Labour's welfare state, as they revealed worklessness had cost more than £340bn in benefits since 1997.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Theresa May said unemployment had become a generational problem and a "vicious cycle" had emerged.

The cost of housing benefit paid to those on out-of-work benefits had totalled more than £100bn in the past 12 years, the Conservatives said.

More than £90bn was paid out in incapacity benefits and another £90bn was spent on income support. Other costs included jobseeker's allowance and council tax benefit.

In a speech on welfare reform to think tank Policy Exchange, Mrs May will point to the "social consequences of this failure".

She will say: "There are communities in Britain where more than half of working-age adults are out of work and dependent on benefits. Almost one in five children in the UK grow up in households dependent on out-of-work benefits.

"Worklessness has become a generational problem - passed from father to son, mother to daughter.

"Children growing up in workless households are more likely to fail at school, become involved in criminal behaviour, develop addictions to drink and drugs and ultimately end up workless themselves. A vicious cycle has emerged."

Official figures show that the number of households in the UK with no-one over the age of 16 working has increased by 240,000 in the past year to 3.3 million.

The Office for National Statistics said the number of working-age people in workless households jumped by 500,000 to 4.8 million in the year to June.